Debate Paper
BCOM/275
January 25, 2015
Debate Paper
Over the years and across the nation the subject of legalizing the recreational use of marijuana had been a controversial topic. There are those who believe marijuana is bad for you and should remain outlawed and carry heavy consequences if caught using or selling. While on the other side of the spectrum, there are those who believe it is not dangerous and should be allowed to buy and use legally within reason. Some positive sides to legal recreational marijuana use are that it will lower overall crime rate and taxes, while also boosting revenue for the nation. Some of the more negative view would be the altered perception it gives users, but also many believe in the “Gate way Theory” and think it can be harmful to your health. There are many pros and cons to any controversial situation.
There are countless benefits to the nation that could be possible if recreational marijuana was legalized. The first benefit to mention would be the revenue the nation could make off the taxation of legalized recreational marijuana sales. If all 50 states would legalize the potential taxes revenue produced could be upwards of 3 billion dollars (Ferner, 2015). This would be very beneficial to our nation. The money collected from the taxes could then be used on many other things this nation so badly needs. This also could potentially lower the taxes we would pay in the future because the economy would be repairing itself due to the extra revenue from legal marijuana sales and the opening of jobs in many other industries legal marijuana could open up. It will also lower the amount of taxes that will be spent by taxpayers on imprisoning marijuana based offenders and their court costs. Marijuana will not lower the crime rate by taking marijuana based offences off the jail time list, but also has been proven to lower activity in many other areas of crime such as; assault, robbery, theft, and arson (Delmore,...